


Haunted

by ageless_aislynn



Series: The Ghost of Eobard Thawne [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Day 6, F/M, Snowells Week 2020, snowellsweek2020, snowellsweek2020 day 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24816748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ageless_aislynn/pseuds/ageless_aislynn
Summary: For Snowells Week 2020 Day 6 - Ghost AUA more serious follow-up to my previous fic "Equal Opportunity." Eobard Thawne told them he would return and that he intended to convert Caitlin Snow to his cause. He's ready to make good on thosethreatspromises.
Relationships: Caitlin Snow/Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells, Killer Frost/Harrison "Nash" Wells
Series: The Ghost of Eobard Thawne [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1793752
Comments: 50
Kudos: 26
Collections: We're A Team Right?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally intended to be a long one-shot but RL intervened and I wasn't able to get it all done in one go, sorry! Next chapter will be here as soon as possible but I don't have any firm timetable for it just yet. Hope you enjoy this little opening act in the meanwhile! ;)
> 
> If you read, I hope you enjoy! ♥
> 
> Edit: Chapters 2 - 5 are now complete as part of my NaNo for the month of November, yay! However, they won't be posted until I have the time to edit them in December. But I just wanted to let you know the fic IS completed now and will be posting on a schedule in the next couple of weeks (if, you know, anybody's reading this ;) ). See you soon! :D ♥

Nash mumbled something in his sleep and Frost blinked, raising her head to look at him from where she was curled up at his side. He still had a lot of nightmares, even after confronting his memory of Maya's death. 

_If he doesn't settle in a minute, I'll wake him up,_ she thought.

The bed dipped as if somebody had sat down on the other side of her. Alarmed, she quickly turned but, in the dimness of the room, there was nothing there. Nothing other than a distinct, pronounced dip in the mattress. 

Then the hollow was abruptly filled with a familiar figure in a yellow suit, stretched out next to her like he'd been invited.

"Boo," he said.

She reacted in a heartbeat, blasting him with dozens of tiny but sharp icicles. They passed through him harmlessly, clinking against the opposite wall.

"Now, is that anyway to greet an old friend?" Eobard Thawne tsked.

"Yeah, you're not my friend," she said and took a swing at him with her fist. It passed through his chin and thumped into the pillow. She gave a frustrated noise, as much at his smug expression as anything. As covertly as possible, she bumped Nash's leg under the covers with her foot.

"True," Eobard went on, propping his chin thoughtfully on his fist. "I'm actually here to speak with Caitlin."

"She doesn't want to talk to you."

He tilted his head slightly. "You didn't ask her."

No, she hadn't, but he had no way to know that. "She's had enough of you. We all have."

He leaned a little closer and it was difficult not to recoil. "She misses me. She told me so," he murmured.

And Caity _had_ meant it, sad to say. But it wasn't her fault that he'd done a number on her from all the years she'd trusted him -- _loved him_ , Frost knew but it was an unspoken thing that Caitlin didn't want to even acknowledge to herself.

"She really made you believe that, didn't she?" she said, lying with ease. "You deserved it after all the bull you fed her for so many years. She told you what you wanted to hear, made you think she actually wanted you, and you fell for it, hook, line and _kablooey_." 

She fluttered her fingers to indicate how he'd pretty much exploded as he'd been expelled from Nash's mind.

His mouth drew into a tight line and his eyes narrowed. "You think I won't hurt you because that would hurt Caitlin. Something to keep in mind, though: there are a lot of different ways to hurt a person. Ask Barry."

She snorted derisively. "You think you scare me?" He did, quite a bit, but she wasn't going to let him in on that. "I wasn't called 'Killer' Frost because of my amazing sense of style. Well, not _just_ for my amazing sense of style."

He came even closer, barely a breath away. "I guess we'll see."

"I guess we won't," Nash suddenly said.

In a smooth motion, he reached over her. Unlike her failed attempt to make contact, he was able to get the apparition by the throat with one hand. "You keep your face away from my girl," he growled, pushing him back at arms' length.

Eobard laughed, unbothered by the hand squeezing his neck. "How cute, the second-rate Harrison Wells doppelganger is making threats."

"I'm more Harrison Wells than you'll ever be, I don't care how many times you put his face back on. Now, get out of here."

"Tell Caitlin I'll be seeing her soon," he said to Frost. "And tell the rest of Team Flash to prepare to enjoy being haunted."

"Why don't you prepare to get my boot up your a--"

He faded away before she got to finish her threat.

Nash exhaled, briefly slumping down and wrapping his arm around her. "Did he hurt you?"

"Nah, he's all show," she said dismissively even as she thought just the opposite. From everything she'd ever heard, every first-hand anecdote, every recording, even the echo of Caity's thoughts and feelings, she knew that the Reverse Flash was seriously dangerous. Making idle threats he couldn't follow through on had never been his _modus operandi_ before. She had no reason to think it would be now, bodiless tachyon brainwaves or not.

"We need to call Barry and Cisco," Nash said, pressing a kiss to her temple, then rolling over to switch on the light and get out of bed. "Start figuring out a plan."

"Yeah," she said, getting up and pulling on clothes just as he was doing. 

_Caity,_ she thought at her sleeping alter ego. _You need to wake up. It seems we're about to have a ghost problem._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eobard declares his intentions. Frost almost sees a ghost wang. Nash has a big gun (in more ways than one). Caitlin's just confused by it all. ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long last, yes, we are resuming the story! It's complete (though, full disclosure: the sequel is not but I'll continue working on it as "Haunted" is posting through this next week) and chapter 3 will post on Thursday, ch4 on Saturday and ch5 plus the epilogue on Monday.
> 
> To anybody reading who's been waiting since ch1 posted... a while ago *blush* thank you for sticking around while I got myself together again. To anybody reading for the first time, the story began in "Equal Opportunity," which you can find by clicking the series title above. However, I think you can just jump right in if you want to. There are a few references to what happened in "EO" (heh, Eo approves of the abbreviation) but if you roll with it, you'll be fine. ;)
> 
> If you read, I hope you enjoy and, if you enjoy, it would be so awesome if you left a comment, one-word to however many you feel like. It honestly does make a difference to my mental well-being. However, I know that commenting can be stressful, too, so you're definitely welcome here even if you don't say a thing. But, if you were wondering if comments were wanted, oh yes, they are very loved, thanks! :D I hope you have a good time reading the story, either way. ;)
> 
> A HUGE thank you to the awesometacular [DancesWithSeatbelts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancesWithSeatbelts/pseuds/DancesWithSeatbelts) for her fabulous beta work on the rest of this fic. All mistakes are mine. But without her help and encouragement, I would've still been stalled. :S Thanks so much! 
> 
> Now... drum roll please and here we go! ;) ♥♥♥

In perfect horror movie fashion, the lights dimmed to total darkness at the other end of the hallway and two red eyes appeared in mid-air. Frost came to a halt, instinctively raising her hands despite knowing that her powers were useless against the apparition.

_Change with me,_ Caitlin mentally urged. _He won't hurt me._

_No, he won't,_ Frost thought back resolutely, _because I'm not giving him a chance to._

She was prepared for Caitlin to try to push through and, when she did, Frost managed to stand her ground, though she felt her hair shift briefly from silver to brown.

"Caitlin would like to speak with me," Eobard Thawne said from the shadows and his knowing tone made her want to slap the smugness from his mouth.

"Caitlin would like to tell you to go throw yourself into the sun," she lied confidently. "But I told her to let me do it instead. She's too polite for her own good. I'm not."

"You think that I don't I know that I scare you?" he murmured.

She was opening her mouth to sass him back when something yellow hurled out of the darkness at her. She shrieked and fired a barrage of icicles at…

…the Reverse Flash suit that flopped to the floor in front of her feet, now bristling with a hundred small, shimmering needles.

He chuckled, low, quiet and infuriating.

Anger began a slow boil, burning through her fear. "What? Is that the spare suit from the Time Vault or did you take yours off? Oh, gag, please tell me you're not standing there naked now?"

"Why don't you come down here and check for yourself?" he purred.

"Like I want to see your ghost wang?" she said with a dramatic grimace of disgust.

"Caitlin had no complaints."

"Yeah, 'cause you were tachyons in Nash's mind at the time," she fired back. "I bet you added on at least five inches so she could even see where it was."

"Oh, so then you're saying that Nash is, how shall we put it… poorly endowed? You forget, I've worn that Harrison Wells body. I know exactly what's in their pants."

_Oops,_ she thought, having run into a serious flaw in her hot-tempered argument. Regardless, she forged on.

"If all _you_ had as Harrison Wells was a teeny weenie, then you must've messed him up when you stole his body," she said, glaring at the red eyes. "Because I can assure you that Nash has an absolute _cannon_ in his boxers. It's a wonder I can walk most days."

"Oh, is that s--?"

With a high-pitched whine, a blast of energy blew past her. For a moment, the silhouette of Eobard Thawne lit up against the darkness, then he dissolved away, like sugar stirred vigorously into a glass of scalding water.

She looked back over her shoulder to find Nash carrying a large, chunky rifle.

"Meet Cisco's 'Ghost Begone,'" he told her as he approached, pulling her to his side with his free arm as he propped the rifle back against his other shoulder.

"Is the _ghost begoned_ permanently?" she asked, exhaling more heavily than she intended.

"Not yet, sorry. But he's working on something to protect all of S.T.A.R. Labs on a more constant basis."

She nodded, wrapping her arms around him and just holding on for a long moment.

"'Cannon' is a bit generous," he murmured into her hair, "but hopefully I'm safely out of the 'teeny weenie' category. All the same, thanks for defending my junk."

"You're welcome but if I say cannon, I mean cannon. And I'm very, very fond of your cannon. Also, that guy," she said fervently, pointing at the empty end of the hallway, "is a huge dick and not in the _has an awesome cannon_ way."

"You'll get no argument from me," he said with a chuckle.

His laugh was, on a technically superficial level, the same as Eobard Thawne's. So how could the sound inspire such opposite emotions in her? Nash's laugh, his voice, seeing his face, everything about him instantly made her feel safe, whereas they brought menace and alarm from the man who currently looked and sounded identical.

She could sense the reverse -- no pun intended -- from Caity, though. She cared about Nash, thought of him as a friend, was happy that he made Frost happy. But Eobard Thawne, even at his most ominous, inspired an excitement and a trust in Caitlin that Frost didn't feel he had earned.

Caity loved him and Frost couldn't understand why. At the very least, he had lied to her about who he was for years, had pretended to be paralyzed, had traded on her kind heart and loving nature.

But… she loved him. As much as Frost knew that she didn't want to. As much as she regretted it. Even now, after this confrontation, she could feel Caity's sadness that she hadn't gotten the chance to speak to him. Hadn't even seen him properly.

_I have to protect her from herself,_ Frost thought privately. _She's just not clear-headed when it comes to him._

***

_I can't hide forever,_ Caitlin pointed out resolutely the next morning as Frost stood naked in front of their shared closet. _I need to get back to work. Godspeed showing up at CCPD was more of a photo op than anything but you know he_ is _going to attack again for real. I need to get the speed decelerator formula ready before then._

"Yeah, I know," Frost muttered but still reached for one of her own outfits.

_Frost,_ her alter ego said resolutely. _Nobody’s seen Thawne since Cisco got the Mega Ghost Begone up and running. We'll be safe._

"Okay, fine," she snapped and picked something from the middle section, which had been deemed acceptable by the both of them. She tossed the black, boot-cut jeans and the form-fitting wine-red shirt onto the bed and padded over to the dresser to get the appropriate lingerie.

She heard Nash's footsteps enter the bedroom.

"Hey, babe," he said. "Anything wrong? Seems to be taking you a while to get your ensemble in order."

"Nah," she said, grabbing the bra and panties she wanted and taking them to the bed. "Caity'd like to get some work in today."

"Ah," he said, understanding what all that entailed. He was shirtless and barefoot, wearing just his pants, and his hair was slicked back from his shower. "I can grab my stuff and get out if Caitlin's ready to get dressed."

Frost couldn't help but appreciate both the sentiment as well as his appearance. A wordless understanding passed between the two women.

_Just call me afterwards,_ Caitlin told her with a smile Frost could feel, then she withdrew.

"Caity's taking a break," she said, flinging the lingerie towards the outfit on the bed and sauntering over to where he stood. Without his belt, his pants were riding low on his hips. She tucked her fingers into the waistband.

"Won't we be late?" His tone made it apparent that he was only asking to be polite.

"Yep," she said with a wink before pulling him in for a kiss.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Casper the not-so-friendly ghost" ups his annoying to eleven. Frost worries. Nash has an idea. Caitlin just wants to see Eobard again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to [DancesWithSeatbelts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancesWithSeatbelts/pseuds/DancesWithSeatbelts) for her awesome beta work! :D
> 
> Chapter 4 will be here on Saturday! ;) If you read, I hope you enjoy! ♥♥♥

"It's fine. Everything is _fine._ "

Frost heard Cisco's _everything is_ not _fine_ tone before she got to the door of his lab. "What happened?" she asked.

Cisco stood in the middle of ground zero. Equipment had been tossed from every surface, the clearboard was facedown on the floor, and papers had been strewn everywhere. "Casper the not-so-friendly ghost decided to up his annoying to eleven this morning."

"I thought the Mega Ghost Begone was working," Nash said as he entered the room.

"I thought so, too." Cisco used the toe of his shoe to bump some of the mess on the floor. "Apparently, it's not Mega Ghost Begonely _enough_."

 _See, Caity,_ Frost thought. _It's not safe._

Caitlin pushed hard enough that she switched their places. "Come on," she told her friend. "We'll help you get this cleaned up, okay?"

 _Hey!_ Frost exclaimed.

 _Maybe if he's watching and sees that I have to help clean up his messes, he'll stop making them,_ she said in a reasonable mental tone.

_Or maybe he'll think it's a great time to kidnap you._

_He could kidnap_ you _and just wait until I finally agreed to talk to him._

Frost's mental snort was as loud as if she were standing right behind her. _He can_ try. _But you can bet I won't go down without a fight. I still think I can figure out a way to shoot icicles all over his non-corporeal ass._

***

Cisco tried a different frequency on his device and the rest of the day went smoothly, with no further _ghost temper tantrums_ , as he termed them. Even still, it took a few more days of the same before Frost was comfortable enough to let Caitlin resume her work.

_First sign of anything yellow, you yell for me, you got it? I don't care if it turns out to be mustard on a hot dog._

_I will,_ she promised. Frost's heavy-handedness would've made her angry under other circumstances but, no matter how hard her alter ego tried to hide it, Caitlin could feel how terrified she was that Eobard would hurt her. Or worse.

 _I shouldn't be so confident that he won't,_ she thought privately. Their… interlude in Nash's mind didn't necessarily mean the same thing to him that it had to her. And no matter that they had worked side-by-side for so many years, the man that she had trusted and cared for had never even existed.

Still, her gut instinct told her she wasn't in danger from him. She might be the only person able to stop him.

Unless, of course, it turned out she was wrong.

***

Frost tucked her hair back behind her ears and then looked down at her coffee mug, which was several inches away from where she was sure she'd set it on the table in the lounge. _Am I losing it?_ she thought to herself, moving it back.

She _was_ tired from vigilantly staying on guard every moment they were at S.T.A.R. Labs. When Caity had control, she usually drifted in a sort of half-sleep, sometimes aware of what was going on, sometimes not. But as long as Caity was focused on her speed decelerator formula, Frost stayed alert, waiting for any warning that she was needed.

She didn't really know if the Reverse Flash was planning on straight-up attacking Caitlin but, if he did, Frost's meta healing abilities had a much better chance of withstanding it.

A slight scraping sound brought her eyes quickly down to where her coffee mug was sliding towards the table's edge.

"Hey," she exclaimed, grabbing the handle. For a moment, she was tugging against an unseen force, then it released, sloshing hot coffee everywhere.

There was a barely perceptible laugh.

"You're a jerk, Thawne," she accused, taking the mug with her as she grabbed some recycled paper towels to mop up the mess. But the instant she put her coffee down again, she heard his distinctive speedster vibration.

Caitlin surprised her by changing their places. "Eobard Thawne, don't you do it," she said firmly and the mug made an arc across the table as if it had been flung, then was caught and returned contritely in front of her. The handle even orientated in the proper direction.

"You're not doing yourself any favors by annoying everybody," she chastised. "Hiding Barry's Flash suits? Stealing all of the clearboard markers? What does any of that get you?"

 _"Fun."_ The word sounded like a rustle of leaves.

"You need a new hobby."

A lock of her hair lifted, fanning across invisible fingers. "Miss you" was sighed into her ear.

She inhaled a shaky breath, exhaled as a soft, "I miss you, too." Then louder, she said, "But that doesn't change things. You need to stop aggravating everybody if you…"

She trailed off. If he _what_? Wanted their help to find a new body to take over? That was never going to happen. What else could his fate be?

Fingers curled around hers, unseen but solid. She gently squeezed them and could've sworn a kiss was pressed to her temple before his presence vanished.

***

"Hey!" Caitlin exclaimed as the keys on her keyboard began pressing on their own. On the monitor, letters appeared one at a time at the end of her formula. She picked up the keyboard, clutching it protectively to her chest, then, looked back at the screen, noticing he had managed to type: ERROR LET ME HEL

She leaned closer, then her eyes went wide as she scanned her work. Muttering a curse under her breath, she went to find the rest of the team in the Cortex.

"No. No way," Cisco said before she got more than half a sentence out. "He's just trying to get us to put the Mega Ghost Begone down. Look at what sort of damage he's caused with it _up._ "

"I agree," Barry said, giving her a sympathetic look. "We all know how devious he is. If he's trying to convince you to take the shield down, then that's a very good reason not to."

"He caught the mistake I'd made," Caitlin said. "Look, you know how important it is that I get this deceleration formula perfect or it'll be useless against Godspeed. If Thawne can help me--"

"He might just be looking for a chance to mess it up worse," Cisco pointed out. "Letting Godspeed take out Team Flash would do a lot to further his cause."

"No, I don't believe he'd do that," she said, shaking her head.

"Hey." He suddenly changed his tone, coming forward and putting his hands on her shoulders. "I know you think he won't let you get hurt. I understand. I believed in him, too. That he'd never hurt me, that he cared about me. And then he stuck his hand in my chest and crushed my heart. Then the first thing he did when he took over Nash was try to finish the job. You can't trust him, Cait. You just can't."

"Is there a way to make it safe?" Nash said into the silence that followed and everybody turned to look at him.

"I wouldn't expect you to be for this," Barry said. "This puts Frost in danger, too."

"I'm well aware," he said. "But Caitlin has a point. If he really _does_ see something wrong with how we're prepping for Godspeed, it might be dangerous to ignore that."

Cisco made a wordless sound of frustration and paced for a moment. He and Barry exchanged a look.

"I don't like it, either," Barry said. "You know that I don't. But if he has an answer, if he honestly _is_ trying to help for Caitlin's sake..."

"What about the tachyon force field?" Caitlin asked. "Could you rig that to contain him?"

Cisco's eyes focused on something only he could see as he worked out the mental logistics. "Yeah, since 'Dr. Wells' won't be sitting here sabotaging it this time around. He'd have to be willing to go into it, though."

"If he wants a chance to talk, then he's going to have to," she said resolutely.

***

"All right, Ghost of Dr. Evil," Cisco announced. "That circle right there is the only place in S.T.A.R. Labs where you can be seen and heard. I suggest you step inside it now."

Caitlin could feel Frost practically tapping her foot tensely in her mind. _If anything goes wrong, I'm taking over._

 _It's going to be okay,_ Caitlin assured her.

The rest of the team was stationed around the room. Nash had his Ghost Begone rifle at the ready, stationed to where he could best cover her.

When she glanced at him, he nodded and she felt Frost's anxiety lessen.

"You ready, Caitlin?" Cisco asked softly and when she inclined her head, he began working the main panel controls.

The field switched on, surrounding an empty circle.

"This was a trick of some sort," Barry muttered. "I knew we couldn't trust him."

"Oh, keep your tights on, Flash. It takes a minute to pull yourself together when you're pure energy."

Just the actual sound of his voice made a thrill of excitement go through Caitlin despite her best intentions.

In a few moments, a hazy outline of a person appeared in the circle, flat at first like a pencil drawing, but then soon taking on dimension and shape. Color came in last, the yellow of the suit seeming unnaturally vibrant.

Eobard Thawne stood there, a slightly holographic glow to him. He pushed back his hood and, when his gaze fell on Caitlin, he gave a smile that was equal parts devil and angel. 

"Hello, sweetheart," he murmured and stepped straight through the energy field.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eobard's ready to celebrate. Frost's in the mood to hit somebody. Nash is a gentleman. Caitlin has questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much again to [DancesWithSeatbelts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancesWithSeatbelts/pseuds/DancesWithSeatbelts) for her awesome beta work! :D
> 
> Sorry to be a little late (if anybody noticed, if not, um... *waves hands Jedi mind trick style* forget I said anything ;) ). Ugh, monster headaches that last for almost 24 hours are _teh_ worst! :(
> 
> This may bump chapter 5+epilogue back to Tuesday but I'll still try for Monday if I can. If you read, I hope you enjoy! ♥♥♥

"Yeah, none of that," Cisco said and made an adjustment that forced the apparition back into the circle of the force field.

"Can't blame a ghost for trying," Eobard drawled.

"Do I get to shoot him yet?" Nash asked no one in particular.

"Keep it in your pants, Teeny," the other returned with a smirk.

"Enough," Caitlin said quickly before things escalated. "We're not here for snarky insults. You seemed to want to tell me something about my formula?"

His expression noticeably softened when he looked at her. "Godspeed is pumped full of tachyons and Velocity 9. You know your V9, and I happen to be quite familiar with tachyons these days. Don't you think it's reasonable that the two of us can account for all of the variables between them both? You know how well we work together."

"What?" Barry scoffed. "You want us to give you free rein of S.T.A.R. Labs? Exactly how stupid do you think we are?"

"Really? Where do I start?" Eobard said, then held up a hand in quasi-surrender. "No, forget that. I'll try to play nice."

"And what do you get out of this?" Cisco injected, his tone steely and serious. "Because don't try to sell us on 'the goodness of your heart' or some other bull."

A myriad of answers twisted Thawne’s mouth as he considered what to say. It never failed to startle Caitlin how much more expressive he was now than he'd been as _Harrison Wells_. Just another stark reminder that, no matter what her feelings insisted, she didn't really _know_ him. Not the actual person beneath the facade of her mentor, her occasional confidante, and her friend whom she had quietly been in love with for some time. That man had never been real. She had truly been in love with a ghost long before his current tachyon predicament made it literal.

"I wouldn't claim to have a lot of _goodness_ in my heart," he finally admitted. "But you know that I'll protect my interests and Caitlin is very much my interest. Do you think that Godspeed doesn't know that you're working on something to stop him? That he can't figure out who on your team is the one most likely to be developing it? I want to help get something devised as soon as possible before he decides to become proactive."

The meta alert alarm began to blare.

"Right on time," Cisco said with an unfriendly look at his former boss.

"You can see I'm confined. Nothing to do with me."

"Yeah, like you've never set a trap for us before," Cisco muttered, fingers flying over the controls. "There, that should hold you for a bit."

"Sure. Caitlin and I can catch up while you're do-gooding," he said affably.

"Nope," Nash said in the same tone. "Because Frost is coming with us."

"I--" Caitlin started to say but Frost switched their places mid-word.

"I'm in a mood to hit somebody," she said, looking straight at the apparition and balling her hands into fists. A wicked array of icicles sprung out of them.

Eobard applauded politely and she flipped him off before following the rest of Team Flash out.

"Do you think he'll still be there when we get back?" Barry asked as they all hurried to the Cortex.

"Is it too much to hope that he'll run out of whatever juice is powering him and he just vanishes for good?" Frost muttered then felt guilty when she sensed the hurt her words had caused Caitlin.

***

A few hours later, they returned from a completely unsatisfying -- in Frost's opinion -- encounter with a meta whose powers let him play a very convincing game of hide-and-seek but nothing else. She found her footsteps slowing even as Caitlin was mentally bouncing in eagerness.

_He might not be there,_ she warned her alter-ego as she entered the room.

But Eobard was sitting in the circle of the force field, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. When he looked up, he brightened. Literally. His appearance went from slightly translucent to solid-with-holographic-edges.

Caitlin pushed through. "Are you all right?"

"Is everything okay?" he asked at the same time.

"Yes," she said. "It wasn't a particularly dangerous meta, just difficult to catch."

He vanished and immediately reappeared standing. "Not Godspeed, then. Good. And yes, I'm as fine as a person who's a tachyon ghost can be. I was just conserving my energy."

Caitlin stepped closer. Frost sent a warning chill down her spine.

_Don't touch the force field,_ she said. _It might let him out._

She could feel that that was Frost's most pressing concern. _I'm not going to let him out,_ Caitlin thought back crossly.

But she did owe it to her friends to not be completely naïve.

"What's your plan?" she asked him. "I need to know."

His eyes flickered over to the camera monitoring their every word and gesture. " _You_ need to know?" he said lightly, "or our friends watching from the Cortex do?"

“You can't blame them for not trusting you," she said resolutely. "But yes, _I_ need to know. If I'm advocating for you, then I want to know what I'm getting into."

"And you'll believe me?"

She faced him squarely, challenging him to look her in the eye. "You haven't given me a lot of reason to, have you?"

He had the grace to look chagrined. "I've lied to you about a lot of things over these years," he admitted.

"And are you going to apologize?"

He studied her for a moment. "No. I lied because I had to, in order to try to get home again. But I _am_ sorry for hurting you."

Even Frost had to grudgingly admit that was more of an honest answer than either of them expected.

"My plan," he said, breaking the pause that followed. "It's actually not that different from what all of the doppelgangers currently crammed into Nash's head want: I want my body back."

"How did you end up with the Harrison Wellses? You're not a doppelganger."

He shifted the way he was standing and abruptly he _was_ Harrison Wells again. At least, the one she'd thought she had known.

"I don't know," he finally said and, when she made a frustrated noise, he stepped forward earnestly. "I'm telling you the truth, Caitlin. I really don't. I was… conducting some business, shall we say, on a different Earth when the antimatter wave hit. I opened a breach and tried to jump but apparently, I wasn't fast enough."

He paused, his expression rueful. "That's personally painful to admit."

"Maybe the Earth you tried to breach into was already destroyed?" she offered.

"Perhaps," he allowed, clearly aware she was humoring him. "However it happened, the next thing I knew, I was among an unholy number of Harrison Wellses shoved into Nash Wells' head."

"And how is it that you were able to try to take him over but nobody else could?"

The smile he gave her was surprisingly boyish. "Determination. The others were distracted, I was focused. At first, it was just anger, guiding me like a laser beam, and that was enough to let me try my -- shall we call it a coup? Then after I was expelled from his mind, I was in dire danger of just scattering into random tachyons, spreading out across the universe. But… you."

A blush crept up her neck, setting heat into her cheeks. His smile widened.

"You refocused me there in Nash's mind," he went on. "You gave me a goal that wasn't about revenge, it was about hope. I haven't had hope in a long, long while."

He put his hand up as if there were a pane of glass separating them. His palm and the pads of his fingertips glowed brightly as they came in contact with the force field.

_Don't touch that,_ Frost warned.

"Don't touch that," Nash cautioned, coming through the door behind her.

"Why does everybody keep telling me that?" she finally snapped.

"Because I could pull you through the force field if you did," Eobard said and she looked at him in surprise. He shrugged. "I'm not intending to. I'm trying to earn trust, not destroy it further but… That's what they're concerned about."

"Caitlin," Nash said, getting her attention again. "They need you in the Cortex."

She nodded, then looked back at the man in the yellow suit. "Are you still going to be here when I get back?"

"I have no place better to be," he said, genially. "But I'll stop being visible until somebody comes back. No need to waste the energy." 

With that, he faded from sight. "See you later, sweetheart," he said, his voice slightly wispy but easily audible.

As she passed by Nash heading towards the door, he reached out and put his hand on her back in a gentlemanly gesture of comfort. The growl that came from within the force field was _also_ quite audible as well.

***

"It's almost like old times, isn't it?" Eobard murmured into her ear and, despite herself, his nearness made her shiver. 

"I can't say I ever remember you hanging over my shoulder while we worked," she said, striving to sound composed.

"No," he agreed readily enough, "but I really should have. There are so many things I regret and how I kept you at arm's length is certainly one of them."

If he would've been real, she would've felt the warmth from his body, his breath would've stirred her hair and caressed her cheek. But, though he looked quite solid now that the Mega Ghost Begone was down, he remained incorporeal and intangible.

_A convincing illusion,_ she thought privately and couldn't help but worry that perhaps that was all his feelings for her were as well: handsome in appearance but as insubstantial as the wind if she tried to grasp hold.

"We need to, ahem, keep going on this," she said as much for her own benefit as his.

"Of course, Dr. Snow," he said and though the words were benign, his husky tone went down her spine like a phantom caress.

***

"Shall we celebrate?"

Caitlin raised an eyebrow as Eobard rested his hip against the desk next to her. "Don't you think that's a little premature? Preliminary results look promising for the first time this week but that's certainly no guarantee that it'll work. The real test will be whenever we try it on Godspeed and then--"

She made a careless gesture with one hand and the coffee mug next to her suddenly went flying. In a literal blink, Eobard vanished and reappeared, catching it before it shattered to the floor of the lab and setting it carefully back where it had come from.

The glow around him steadied out to the point that he no longer had a ghostly look to him, he appeared as real as he ever had in all of the years they'd spent working together. She couldn't resist the temptation to stretch out her hand and let her fingers brush his sleeve.

Her fingertips made contact with… something. She really didn't know what the Reverse Flash suit had felt like when he'd worn it previously. She assumed it wasn't that different from Barry's suit, though she'd hardly tell him that. But even if it didn't feel accurately _authentic_ , it felt genuine all the same.

He smiled down at her, turning so that he took her hand in his. For a moment, his solidity wavered, then she saw him make a concerted effort and she could almost believe he was really there, holding her hand.

"How difficult is that for you to do?" she asked softly.

"Quite," he admitted. "I can only stay this corporeal for a short amount of time before I have to rest and let the energy recharge."

"What happens if you don't?"

He lifted her hand to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the back. "The same thing that happens to everything when its energy is expended: it ceases to be."

Concerned at the easy way he pronounced that dire consequence, she pushed back her chair and stood. He gave her room to do so but kept hold of her hand. "Then you shouldn't risk it," she chided.

He released her only to cup her face in his palms. "There are some things that are worth the risk," he murmured, leaning nearer then pausing a breath away.

He was giving her the choice, she realized. But there hadn't really been a choice in a long while, had there?

She kissed him. For a moment, it felt absolutely real, more real than even when she had kissed him in Nash's mind. Then all too soon, he began to feel insubstantial in her arms, as if his edges were turning to mist.

He muttered a curse against her mouth and kissed her even more fervently until it became clear he was losing the battle. "I'll be back as soon as I can," he said around more kisses. He tried to stroke her hair but the strands slipped completely through his increasingly hazy fingers. "I'll--"

An alarm abruptly blared a distinctive three-tone series of notes, Cisco's recently created "Incoming Speedster Alert."

For a moment, she and Eobard just looked at each other.

"No, it's too soon," he said. "It's too--"

He vanished. A split-second later, there came an explosion and the power went out, leaving her standing there in her lab in complete darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eobard makes a stand. Frost gets put out in the cold. Nash is a hero. Caitlin faces heartbreak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much again to [DancesWithSeatbelts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancesWithSeatbelts/pseuds/DancesWithSeatbelts) for her awesome beta work! :D
> 
> Final notes to come at the end of the epilogue. ;) If you read, I hope you enjoy! ♥♥♥

The backup generator kicked in, casting her lab in an eerie amber glow. Several monitors flickered back to life and she immediately checked the security feed.

Distinctive white lightning streaked towards Central City, miles away but only a heartbeat for a speedster.

_He might not even be coming to S.T.A.R. Labs,_ Caitlin told herself, but regardless, she hurried over to where the serum was stored, intending to call Barry to pick it up. They had no better way to _weaponize_ a delivery system than to put it in the hands of the Flash, after all. She grabbed for the refrigerator but before her fingers closed around the handle, her hair blew from the arrival of a speedster.

Frost shoved her out of the way, spinning around even as they both recognized that it was _not_ Barry who had arrived.

Godspeed, his face completely concealed by his mask, looked at her, white lightning skittering over his suit. A high-pitched whine blared from a round device attached to his belt.

She didn't hesitate, blasting him with as much cold as she could gather in a heartbeat. The lab briefly filled with thick clouds of mist and, for a moment, she thought she'd gotten him. But then a hand came out of the mist at superspeed, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her off her feet before she could even flinch.

"Interesting," he observed as if she were a bug pinned to a board and he was enjoying her struggles.

_Act, don't panic,_ Frost thought even as he squeezed her windpipe nearly shut, her lungs screaming for air. She clamped her hands around his wrist, pushing hard on the cold again. Even for a metahuman, it should've been enough to freeze their arm solid.

He made an unhappy noise and his fingers spasmed open, releasing her. She dragged in a hoarse breath, her knees threatening to give way as her feet hit the floor but she forced herself to stay upright. With another ragged breath, she faced her palms towards him, readying another wave of cold.

_See how you like absolute zero, you mother--_ she was thinking when a slap sent her flying backwards before she even registered the impact.

"Enough of that," he said mildly and took the device off his belt and flipped a switch on it.

A wave of cacophonous noise, bright and disorientating, joined the loud whine, filling the lab.

To her horror, Frost was mentally thrust backwards, leaving Caitlin to stare up at Godspeed from where she was sprawled on the floor. Frost's healing abilities had barely had time to kick in, so her jaw still ached like she'd crashed face-first into a concrete wall and her throat was as raw as if it had been closed in a vise. Just beyond him, she caught a glimpse of one of the interior monitors and saw Barry running down the hall.

Running at normal, non-meta speed. Under other circumstances, it might've been funny to see the Flash sprinting like mad like a regular guy.

_Godspeed must be using some sort of meta-dampener,_ she thought, suddenly calm in the face of the fact that she was about to be killed and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

He suddenly had her on her feet again in a parody of a helping hand up. But before he did anything else, a blast came from the doorway, sending them stumbling in opposite directions. She dove after the storage refrigerator, yanking it open and pulling out the syringe.

When she turned around, Godspeed now had Nash pinned to the wall. Nash had managed to get his pulse rifle wedged between the two of them but before he could pull the trigger into the meta's stomach, Godspeed casually shattered it with a blow of one hand.

Caitlin had to ignore Frost's faraway scream, priming the syringe in one hand as she crossed to the speedster in white and stabbed him directly into the carotid artery.

It was like trying to inject into a brick. The needle shattered against his suit, the serum draining out uselessly.

The next few seconds were a literal blur: Nash was thrown out into the hallway, slamming against the wall, Godspeed shoved her backwards and then was standing over her before she'd even hit her desk and crumpled to the floor.

The sharp pain over her kidney where she'd impacted into the hard edge brought tears to her eyes. She _reached_ for Frost like she was seeking her hand in a pitch black room, feeling her alter-ego just as fervently scrambling to find her as well. But it was as if there was a thick, spongy barrier between them, sending them mentally bouncing away from each other whenever they got close.

Godspeed inclined his head, watching her for a moment as if knowing exactly what she was doing. "You know," he said quite casually, "I hadn't really decided whether to kill you or not but I think it might be more prudent to, when all is said and done."

He held up a hand, setting it to vibrating with a theatrical motion.

"Why do all of you speedsters feel the need to shove your hands through people?" she ground out hoarsely through gritted teeth.

"Because they're a bunch of copycats who can't come up with their own material."

She heard his voice before the man in the yellow suit materialized in between them. Eobard looked transparent and completely incorporeal but his hands snapped out readily enough to grab Godspeed around the neck. Red sparks rained in all directions from the point of contact, like a downed high voltage wire snapping and writhing on the pavement, then they curved around and formed a net over the other's white suit, holding him immobile.

"Can't do this all day, dear," Eobard told her, strain evident in his voice. "Get the serum."

"It's gone," she said. "It broke."

"Get the backup," he said, the sparks growing brighter, tightening more as Godspeed struggled to break free. White lightning crackled and warred against the red.

There wasn't a backup but she went to the spare refrigerated unit anyway and… There was another syringe. _She_ hadn't created it and she had never been aware of a time when he was corporeal enough to create it without her.

It didn't matter now. She grabbed and primed it almost in one motion, hurrying back to where they were still locked in place.

"It won't pierce his suit," she said tersely.

His right hand began to shed red sparks like the blast from a Roman candle. "Go through me," he said, his words fading out at the end. 

Godspeed made a sound like metal grinding on metal: _Thhhaaawnnne._

Eobard's image grew more and more transparent as he poured his tachyons into whatever he was doing to the other's suit. "Now, Cait," he commanded, the words hollow and faraway.

She stepped up and slammed the syringe straight through the back of his hand as directed and felt it slide through the suit and bite into the meta's carotid artery. She made the injection. 

Somebody grabbed her and pulled her back several steps. There was a panicked moment before she realized it was Nash.

The web of red lightning around Godspeed exploded with enough force to drive them back even further. Nash curled around her, shielding her from the blast of heat and blinding light.

When her vision cleared, she peered around him just in time to see Godspeed speed out of the room, trailing white and red lightning. Barry and Cisco arrived a few moments later.

"I thought that serum was going to take his speed," Barry exclaimed in frustration.

"Keep your panties on, Flash. He's using up the last of it now."

They all looked down at Eobard who had dropped to the floor. His edges were trailing off, as if his molecules were being siphoned away.

"I don't think he's the only one using up the last of his energy, is he?" Cisco said, his tone caught between pity and indifference. When he glanced at Caitlin, she knew that the former was for her.

Eobard gave him a sketchy _on the nose_ motion, then looked bemusedly at his fingertips as they disappeared.

Caitlin pulled free of Nash's hold and went to kneel next to him. "What can we do?" she asked, her hands fluttering helplessly in the air, trying and failing to grasp hold of him.

He smiled with surprising gentleness. "I'm already doing it."

She shook her head, angry tears springing to her eyes.

"Hey, none of that," he said, making a motion as if he'd intended to wipe away the trails of moisture tracing their way down her face. Then he abruptly realized that not only had both of his hands disappeared but so had a good portion of his arms as well. So he leaned forward and kissed the tears instead.

All she felt was a whisper of air against her skin.

"I started this because I wanted to be a hero," he said as he sat back. His image was dissolving faster the further along the process went, his voice so thin it was barely a breath. "Almost no one remembers that now. I'd forgotten it myself, actually. You made me remember, Caitlin. You made me want to be better. It's one reason why I lo--"

He vanished.

"No," she said sharply, looking at her friends as if they would somehow have the answer.

Barry and Cisco exchanged glances.

"We need to track Godspeed," Cisco said softly. "Barry, how's your speed?"

Yellow lightning skittered softly around his red suit. "Feels like it's coming back now that that dampener is gone," he said. "I should be able to chase him down in a few minutes, especially if he's losing speed himself."

"You two go on," Nash said. "I'll stay with Caitlin."

As they nodded and withdrew, Nash sat down on the floor next to her.

"Um, Frost is okay," she said, scrubbing angrily at her cheeks, trying to make the tears stop. "I should be able to change with her in a few minutes."

"I'm your friend, too, you know," he reminded her, holding out an arm invitingly.

From far away, she felt Frost urging her to go to him. The barrier between them was fading but, no matter how well they connected again, there was no way for Frost to physically hug her.

She scooted over and let him pull her into an embrace, settling his chin atop her head while more tears fell and spotted the front of his jacket.

" _Ça ira._ It will be fine," he said in a voice that wasn't entirely his.

She straightened, looking at him. "Sherloque?" she murmured.

"Sher _loque_ ," he tsked with a bit of a crooked smile then Nash shook his head slightly, his voice returning to normal. "Does he always do that? Correct how you say his name?"

She gave a teary smile. "It's... an endearing quality."

Nash's voice became gruffer. "'Endearing' isn't exactly the word for it, Snow."

"Harry," she said and hugged him.

"You're going to make it, Caitlin. Just hang in there," Harry said, tightening his arms around her, then Nash exhaled heavily and she knew it was him once more.

"Thanks," she said softly. "It was good to know they're both still… here."

"Sure. I felt a little like a mic being passed around at a wedding reception for a minute there, though." His slightly mournful tone earned a chuckle from her, as he'd intended. "But it's okay. I know it's frustrating for them."

They sat there for a while longer, with her crying a little as he held her, before she made an effort to compose herself.

"We should see how Barry and Cisco are doing in tracking down Godspeed," she said.

"You sure?" he asked. 

"I'm sure," she said. Because, for now, she had to be.

***

Caitlin felt like she was sleepwalking. Godspeed had vanished. Eobard was… gone. She knew she should use a different word but she wasn't yet ready for the unflinching reality of _dead_. They'd thought he was dead before and he'd always found a way to come back.

Somehow.

Cisco had scanned for his tachyon signal but found nothing. He'd told her he would keep trying and she knew it was both for her sake as well as to be on guard against his return.

_He always comes back_ , she thought.

She continued thinking that for the rest of the day, clutching the words around her like a security blanket. She thought it for the rest of the week, the rest of the month. She tried not to let it affect her work but she could feel the way the others looked at her with a mixture of pity and sadness. She stopped asking Cisco if he'd found anything, knowing he'd tell her if he did.

Three months passed. The others seemed to think that perhaps she'd gotten over it. Frost, of course, knew better. Nash did, too, since he was the one who would comfort her when, on rare occasions, she and Frost would swap places in their mutual sleep and Caitlin would wake up with tears on her face.

Eventually, the hope began to wan, a fire burning down to a single ember. Three months became six, became nine, became almost a year. And still that single ember remained, even as she was able to fool all but Frost, who knew her heart. 

_Caity,_ Frost tentatively thought at her, _you shouldn't let him haunt you like this. You know that, right?_

_I know,_ Caitlin said simply and her alter didn't push any further, not wanting to cause her more pain.

_I won't give up,_ she thought privately and that tiny flame became a candle in the dark, a lone little light that she thought might somehow guide him home to her again.

He'd said she had given him hope. He'd given her the same gift. She would wait for him, however long it took. He always came back.

She was fine with being haunted forever if Eobard Thawne would just be her ghost again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue

Frost raised her head, thinking that Nash had said something. In the faint moonlight edging around the window shades, she could see the slow and easy fall of his chest. 

_I must've been dreaming,_ she thought, raking her fingers through her sleep-disheveled hair.

And then the bed dipped behind her.

She whirled and, in the split-second where she recognized the figure in the white suit, she'd already fired icicles from the palms of her hands. They embedded into the front of him, glistening like tiny daggers.

"Ow," Godspeed said drolly. "I mean, they can't really get through the suit but they sting all the same."

She bumped Nash's leg not-so-covertly under the cover and he jolted awake. As soon as he spotted their _visitor,_ he grabbed a modified pistol off the nightstand and leveled it steadily over Frost at the speedster in their bed.

"You two," the man in white chided. "Are you always so prone to violence?"

His voice sounded… different but she couldn't place how. "What do you want?" she asked tersely.

He inclined his head to the side as if working out a kink in his neck. "I'm here to speak with Caitlin."

Frost peppered him with icicles again and he made an annoyed noise, vibrating intensely until the ice shook free.

"Do you mind not--?" he started to say when Nash shot him. The bolt of energy caused him to roll off the bed and vanish. 

They both carefully crawled, her with one hand ready to blast more ice, he with his gun ready to fire, to peer over the edge. The dim lighting was enough to reveal that the floor was empty.

With the distinctive speedster whoosh, he appeared sitting on the dresser, perched there like some sort of imp.

"The _violence_ ," he tsked again, holding up his hands as if to show he was harmless.

Frost snorted loudly at that and gave herself a nice set of "brass knuckles" made out of razor sharp icicles.

He reached up slowly, again as if trying to avoid provoking any more outbursts, and pulled off his mask. For a moment, August Heart looked at them. Then he shook his head like a dog shaking water from its fur. His hair and features… shifted.

"So, what do you think?" asked Eobard Thawne with a grin. "Is white my color?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much again to [DancesWithSeatbelts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancesWithSeatbelts/pseuds/DancesWithSeatbelts) for her awesome beta work and her invaluable encouragement! :D
> 
> Annnd here we've finally made it to the end of the tale but the journey is not yet finished: the final installment of _The Ghost of Eobard Thawne_ will be up as soon as I can get it finished. ;) I'm aiming for this month, so *fingers crossed.* I hope you'll come back to see how things all work out! ;)
> 
> If you read, I hope you enjoyed! ♥♥♥


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